After the collapse of Nazi Germany, there were a lot of "moderate" Hitler fans left

[struggle4progress]

I'm not talking about rabid diehard haters: I'm talking about ordinary ill-informed nitwits who made it through the Nazi era by somehow managing not to notice too much or care too much about what they did notice

This group included a number of well-educated professionals, who really should have known better but just couldn't let go of their nice middle-of-the-road on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand waffling numbskull habit

The kinds of things they said were quite predictable and will sound familiar: "Of course, everyone makes mistakes, but why shouldn't we remember the good things Hitler did for Germany?" or "He was a good man but maybe not all of his appointees were as good as he was"

Sometimes other people eventually talked them out of their dreamworld -- perhaps after years of patient dialog. In other cases, we can only suspect that they continued sleepwalking through their lives and then finally into their graves

What we're facing is nothing new

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I've met them.

I attended a German Jaeger party in the middle of the woods. The "hunters" were loudly singing Hitler "fight songs" from the good ole days.

A few years later, my German host led me to his cellar where he kept a makeshift museum that had Hitler memorabilia.

It's more than German senior citizens. Middle aged Germans. Young Germans. It's like the only pride they can claim.

[Glorfindel]

2. "It's like the only pride they can claim." And there's the tragedy

A culture that produced Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Hayden, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, etc., etc., and the only thing they can be proud of is Adolf Hitler?

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Exactly. Same thing with the Trump supporters.

They want English only but eschew Shakespeare and basic grammar.

[world wide wally]

4. Consider the tragedy it took to break Hitler's spell.

Too many Americans today seem equally stubborn to wake up.
This can only lead to more tragedy.

[uponit7771]

5. People don't want to be wrong about someone so obviously screwed up

[Trek4Truth]

6. My friend last night said ya know Hilter had some good policies. I almost crashed the fucking

car. I said OH really...like what?
Oh like getting rid of undesirables.

I said Oh you mean like your drug addict daughter?

He said I'm tired of all the people taking free shit. I said OK who are these people...forced him to answer and he admitted the blacks. So I said isn't your drug addict daughter gaming the fucking system and she is on disability?
Your fucking DEADBEAT DAUGHTER who doesn't want to work...has never worked taking FREE SHIT. She is over 30yrs old.

These people are beyond...and this guy is a Union guy. UGH. No matter how many things you point out it or show their own contradictions........it just doesn't matter.

[PatSeg]

8. Oh yes

When people like your friend uses "free shit" from the government, they are entitled, they earned it. The "others" are freeloaders and leeches. Some people are incapable or unwilling to see the world from another person's perspective.

You probably don't want to be stuck in a car with this friend again!

[Trek4Truth]

9. It's only a few times a year when we go to concerts. It would be he who wouldn't want to be in the

car with me again. Trust me on that one, I ripped him 10 new assholes. I went to a Skynyrd concert last night...deplorables all around. I don't give not one shit...PLEASE, let someone confront me if they don't like what I'm saying. I made sure to speak loudly so others would hear.

I'm not going to be quiet, I mean I never was before.... but now if I even hear a WHIFF of bullshit...from ANYONE...I'm calling it out.

[PatSeg]

13. Good for you

I tend be a very tolerant person, but that doesn't include tolerating mindless intolerance. For as long as I can remember, any form of racism triggers something in me and I become obnoxiously outspoken.................with no regrets of course. I honestly can't recall a time, when people didn't back off, though that might be selective on my part.

[marylandblue]

7. Putin's support comes partly from Soviet nostalgia

When Russia was a superpower. They want a new empire.

[thucythucy]

10. There's an amazing anecdote about this

toward the end of the BBC series "World at War."

A woman is being interviewed. She was a teenager and living in Berlin with her mother in April 1945. The Russians were literally just a few miles away.

Her mother turns on the radio and it's Goebbels ranting, "Vienna will once more be German, Berlin will always be German!" (The Russians had taken Vienna not too long before). Her mother turns to her and says, "Thank goodness, that means Germany will win the war."

The daughter says (and I'm paraphrasing all of this), "Mom, I hate to tell you, but I think the war is lost."

And the mother says, "Do you think Dr. Goebbels would tell a lie at a time like this?!"

There's a wide streak of gullibility that runs through much of the human race, which we somehow have to work through.

BTW, "World at War" is an amazing documentary series. No "reenactments" (which I hate), just amazing footage, interviews with historians and witnesses, and a cogent explanation for how it all unfolded. The only thing I've ever seen on American television that even comes close is "Eyes on the Prize" and "Vietnam: a Television History," both produced by PBS, neither of which ever seem to get re-broadcast.

[DBoon]

11. Just like our fans of the lost Confederacy

"slavery wasn't so bad"

Fascists always glamorize a brutal ugly past - Mussolini did the Roman Empire, Franco Baroque Spain (complete with Spanish Inquisition), etc.

[Wounded Bear]

12. Yep, and Mussolini made the trains run on time...

People like to remember the small "good" things that were accomplished and rationalize away the bad.

What did Hitler do that was "good?" Well his autobahn was the model for the US Insterstate Highway system. Unfortunately, his model for how to transport and dispose of large numbers of people is being used as a model by Trump & Co.